The all-girl crew aboard Amer Sports Too are doing everything they can to catch the ill-stricken News Corp who’s sailing under emergency rudder. Although they are only 85 miles away from News Corp, there’s only 129 miles to the finish line, so the chances of catching and overtaking at this late stage in the race, are looking slim.

However, if the wind increases for News Corp and the pressure on the rudder becomes a problem, they could be forced to throttle back and allow the girls through.

Ross Field from News Corp commented earlier today: ‘We are sailing at 75-80 per cent of our potential speed because we can’t put any more pressure on the rudder. This means that we can’t get out of the way of black clouds, and therefore they run right over us leaving us with no wind.

‘Amazing today, we had another waterspout/tornado. We have seen them on the horizon all day, but this one was right above us. We all looked up in amazement – right above us was a developing spout trying to make its way to water level. At one stage we were looking up into the middle of it. All of a sudden we saw it on the water and it travelled across our stern, about 50 metres away. It was tiny compared to the one in Sydney and only sucked the wind out of our sails, but an incredible sight.

‘Can’t wait to get in, have a shower, a good sleep, a nice meal, forget about leg four, and plan to win the next leg.’

Position Report, Day 25, 0354 GMT

1 ILBK (finished)

2 DJCE (finished)

3 TYCO (finished)

4 AART (finished)

5 AONE (finished)

6 NEWS (129 miles to finish)

7 ATOO (85 miles from News Corp)

8 TSEB (Retired)